Pharmaron Beijing Co., Ltd.

Eli Lilly's investment spree in East Asia, Pfizer and Sciwind Biosciences' obesity drug approval in China and Astellas Pharma CEO's drug pricing observation in Japan made our news this week. Eli Lilly is making investments in China, Japan and South Korea. Pfizer has broken into obesity thanks to a Chinese nod won by its local partner Sciwind Biosciences. Astellas' CEO attributed a better-than-expected reimbursement price in Japan to the U.S.' most-favored-nation policy. And more.1. Lilly beefs up oral GLP-1 capacity with $3B manufacturing pledge in ChinaEli Lilly is investing $3 billion over the next 10 years in China to beef up manufacturing capacity for its pipeline, including the GLP-1 pill orforglipron, which is under review in more than 40 countries including China and the U.S. The first tranche of the investment, about $200 million, will go to local CDMO Pharmaron to support its technological capabilities and scale expansion.2. After China outlay, Lilly plugs $126M into Japan manufacturing plant expansionAlong with the China investment, Lilly also unveiled a 20 billion Japanese yen ($126 million) expansion at a plant in Japan. The company plans to install a new production line and add a warehouse at its lone in-house production facility in the country. The project will bolster production of diabetes and obesity drugs, according to Nikkei Asia. 3. Lilly pledges $500M to South Korea biopharma industry, following Roche’s leadSimultaneously, Lilly is committing $500 million over five years to help South Korea’s biopharma industry grow. As part of a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean government, the money is meant to attract clinical trials to the country while also supporting the opening of an incubator as part of the Lilly Gateway Labs network. 4. Pfizer breaks into obesity market in China with approval for Sciwind-partnered GLP-1Just a few days after Pfizer signed on to market a GLP-1 drug in China, local authorities have approved the injectable med, ecnoglutide, made by Sciwind Biosciences, to treat obesity. In a 48-week trial, patients on the highest dose of ecnoglutide achieved average weight loss of 15.4% from baseline. The drug is also indicated for Type 2 diabetes.5. Trump’s MFN drug pricing push helps Astellas win higher Izervay price in Japan (Bloomberg)Astellas Pharma won reimbursement in Japan for its eye med Izervay at a level that was more generous than expected after the company told local authorities that domestic drug costs could influence U.S. pricing under President Donald Trump’s most-favored-nation policy, Astellas CEO Naoki Okamura said. Although it’s unclear whether Japanese officials explicitly considered the argument behind closed doors, the outcome suggests a shift in the government’s stance, he said.6. Merck KGaA drops pipeline assets from SpringWorks buyout, Hengrui licensing dealMerck KGaA has discontinued a PARP1 inhibitor that was licensed from Hengrui Pharma for $169 million upfront in 2023. At that time, potential milestones included in the deal added up to $1.5 billion. A phase 1b study of the drug in solid tumors and colorectal cancer has been terminated.  Other News of Note:7. Taiwan earmarks $755M for multi-year drug supply resilience program8. Tenacia builds $308M biobucks deal with Rapport to develop epilepsy drug in greater China9. Ascletis eyes quarterly GLP-1 dosing following phase 2 obesity readout10. Eisai chooses 'Pokémon Sleep' app to battle bad sleep habits in awareness campaign11. Daiichi Sankyo-Seagen ADC patent dispute comes to an end (release)12. FDA gives Glenmark thumbs-up for first 'true' generic version of GSK's asthma inhaler Flovent13. Daiichi, AZ’s Enhertu under FDA priority review in adjuvant breast cancer (Regulatory tracker)14. Bavarian Nordic, Serum Institute expand manufacturing partnership to cover chikungunya vaccine (release)15. Charles River signs MOUs with 3 APAC partners to support biologics (BioSpectrum)

Its latest investment brings Eli Lilly's total outlay in China to nearly $6 billion so far, the company said. Eli Lilly is infusing $3 billion into its manufacturing operations in China, pledging to set up local production and supply for oral solid drugs as it works on building out capacity for its experimental GLP-1 pill orforglipron. The investment will play out over the next 10 years and involve work with "several" local partners, according to a March 11 press release (Chinese) on Lilly China's official WeChat account. One such collaboration is with Beijing-based CDMO Pharmaron, which will receive a $200 million investment from Lilly to support its technological capabilities and gradually expand its scale “as needed.” Lilly’s head of manufacturing operations, Edgardo Hernandez, called the Pharmaron partnership a “key step in making this commitment take root in China,” adding that the announcement falls on the 30th anniversary of operations at Lilly's plant in Suzhou, China. “Building on the solid capabilities accumulated over the years at our Suzhou plant and our deep collaboration with Jiangsu province, we will continue to expand the existing incretin injection production capacity at our Suzhou plant while adding oral solid dosage form production capacity in Beijing, promoting the localization of manufacturing and supply of key innovations,” Lilly’s China general manager De Helan explained in the release. The company has invested nearly $6 billion into its Chinese operations to date, including numerous supply chain upgrades over the past two years. In 2024, Lilly committed $200 million to the Suzhou site, adding 120 jobs in an expansion meant to increase the supply of its tirzepatide products. The drugmaker has also planted research roots in the region with the Eli Lilly China Medical Innovation Center and Lilly Gateway Labs, which have been positioned to “further deepen Eli Lilly’s century-old business layout in China," chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., has said previously. Meanwhile, Lilly has been hard at work bolstering the supply of its investigational orforglipron ahead of key approval decisions for the oral GLP-1. Lilly reported "pre-launch inventories" worth $1.5 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, with most of that supply tied to orforglipron, according to a February filing (PDF). The plan is to launch the drug “in many, many countries around the world, as quickly as possible,”  Skovronsky said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January, according to Reuters. Although orforglipron’s FDA review in obesity was set to benefit from the receipt of an FDA Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) in November, the agency ultimately pushed its target decision date out to April 10, Reuters and other news outlets reported earlier this year, lengthening the timeline from what could have been a one- to two-month review under the CNPV program. Lilly has submitted the med to drug regulators in over 40 countries, including China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), where Lilly filed for approval at the end of 2025. While the surge in global drug production prompted by last year’s geopolitical uncertainties and threats of U.S. import tariffs is expected to slow in 2026, financial services firm Atradius estimates that China’s pharmaceutical output will grow 6.6% this year. The country has become a hot spot for licensing deals as of late, while several of Lilly’s Big Pharma peers, such as AstraZeneca and Sanofi, have recently made their own multi-billion-dollar manufacturing investments in the region. 

Eli Lilly plans to invest $3 billion in China over the next decade to grow its manufacturing and supply chain footprint, with a particular focus on eventually producing its oral GLP-1 drug orforglipron. The company disclosed the plan in a social media post Thursday, outlining a long-term effort to build out local production capacity as it readies to meet potential demand for the pill from Chinese patients.The company said it submitted a marketing application for orforglipron to regulators there at the end of 2025 seeking approval for type 2 diabetes and obesity. The drug, currently also under review in the US, showed placebo-adjusted weight loss of 11.5% after 72 weeks in the Phase III ATTAIN-1 trial. In another Phase III study, dubbed ATTAIN-MAINTAIN, it also helped patients switching from an injectable GLP-1 drug keep the majority of their weight off for another year.Lilly currently sells its dual GLP-1/GIP agonist tirzepatide for both diabetes and weight loss in China under the name Mounjaro. In December, the country's National Healthcare Security Administration said Mounjaro would be added to the state-run health insurance for patients with type 2 diabetes at the start of this year.Local partnershipsLilly said part of its investment will come through partnerships. The company plans to work with Pharmaron in a collaboration valued at about $200 million to strengthen its technological capabilities, and the scale could expand over time "as needed."Despite partially exiting China's off-patent segment a few years ago – selling rights to some legacy antibiotic brands along with a manufacturing facility in Suzhou for $375 million in 2019 –  Lilly has been doubling down on the country as a whole in a big way. Between 2024 and 2025, it poured about RMB 1.5 billion ($218 million) into upgrading capacity at its Suzhou factory to boost production of drugs for type 2 diabetes and obesity, and set up innovation incubators in in Beijing and Shanghai to help early-stage biotechs move promising science into the clinic. All told, Lilly's total investment in China has now climbed to nearly $6 billion."Building on the solid capabilities accumulated over the years at our Suzhou plant and our deep collaboration with Jiangsu province, we will continue to expand the existing incretin injection production capacity at our Suzhou plant while adding oral solid dosage form production capacity in Beijing," said De Helan, Lilly's general manager for China.Other companies are also working to expand their presence in the country. AstraZeneca recently pledged roughly $15 billion in investment in China through 2030 to build out its cell therapy and radioconjugates capabilities across cancer, haematological and autoimmune diseases.However, not every drugmaker is following suit. In September, Bristol Myers Squibb offloaded its 60% stake in a Chinese pharmaceutical joint venture that manufactures generic drugs, while other major drugmakers such as UCB and Pfizer have made similar exits from China's off-patent drug sector over the years.